1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image-capture devices, image-capture methods, and image-capture methods. More specifically, the present invention relates to image-capture devices, such as cameras and video cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, in photography using an image-capture device such as a camera or video camera, when a situation that the operator thereof wants to take a photograph appears, he or she presses an operation button or the like, provided in an operation section, to give a recording-start instruction to the camera or video camera.
For example, when the operator wants to photograph a child's smile by using a camera, the operator has to pay attention to the child so that he or she faces the camera, while holding the camera, and has to wait for the child to smile, to press a photography button. As a result, the operator often misses photographing which is caused by a late operation.
When the operator wants to photograph a child's smile by using a video camera, there is a possibility that it is too late to perform an operation, as in the case of the camera. Even when the operator operates at an appropriate timing, a cause of the smile of the child and a state of change in the facial expression may not generally be photographed.
Thus, the operator may press the photography button earlier so as to prevent a late operation, thus wasting power, resources of a recording medium, and so on. Some methods have been conceived in order to solve the above-described problems.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-42319 discloses a camera and a video camera that calculate an evaluation value indicating the degree of a facial expression on the basis of facial information of a subject and that automatically starts recording when the evaluation value exceeds a predetermined threshold.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-166184 discloses a video camera that can start recording a few seconds before a photography-start operation is performed, in order to prevent missing photographing which is caused by a late photography-start operation.